MediaCom TMB has gathered together six of its planners, buyers and
researchers to run a division devoted to handling internet
campaigns.
The unit, called Media.com, will be fronted by Barry Cree, a MediaCom
director of five years who has worked on the Warner Brothers and
Smith-Kline Beecham accounts.
Media.com will only take on online media briefs, working closely with
the agency’s traditional media planners and buyers if clients want
integrated media drives.
MediaCom has around 40 clients that spend on online advertising. The
bigger spenders include SmithKline Beecham, Nokia, Tag Heuer and the
music and video giant Universal.
According to Cree, the agency is also being ’inundated’ by smaller
companies requesting online campaigns or wanting advice about
advertising on the net.
Cree has recruited five traditional media agency staff to run the
department.
Account director and new-media expert Graham Phillips has been pulled in
to handle Media.com’s large clients, while print buyer Michelle Gilmore
will handle new-media buying.
Media.com’s planning will be taken on by planner Gareth Mulryan while
former PA Vicky Ruddick becomes the ’eyes and ears’ of the unit by
conducting research into what is on the net. Finally, Cree is to hire a
full-time data analyst who will sit in the agency’s response-analysis
unit.
MediaCom has already launched Media.com units in Germany, France, Sweden
and Denmark and Cree has a seat on the European Media.com board.
Cree said the opening of a Media.com department in the UK was in
response to the rapid growth of the internet and daily emergence of
e-commerce ventures.
’There is so much business out there that we are turning away
invitations to pitch from ISPs,’ he explained. ’Also, just one of our
companies - MediaCom Direct - predicts that 20 per cent of its campaigns
will be online within five years.
’The direct side of MediaCom bills around pounds 80 million a year so
that makes you realise that the internet needs to be taken seriously.’
